Past Projects - Southampton University Spaceflight Society

Past Projects - Southampton University Spaceflight Society

Past Projects

Stabilised Platform

Typically payloads are suspended from high altitude balloons from a cable, this can easily get twisted and spin uncontrollably - making photography very difficult.
This project used passive features, as well as reaction wheels, to create a gyroscopically stabilised frame to mount a camera on. This would facilitate high altitude astrophotography.

Uos3 CubeSat

Recorded its orbit decay as it returned to Earth, using a groundstation ran by SUSF.

Lunar Hopper

Investigated an alternative method of traversing the moon: short engine firings, hopping the frame along the surface.

Soton Cansat

SUSF has taken part in multiple CanSat projects over the years, this is where a small can-sized satellite is launched into the lower atmosphere using a small rocket to perform a predefined task. We still create CanSats, but this particular incarnation of the project was from 2021 and 2022. In these years we won in the UK Universities CanSat Competitions and received the Safety Champions Award in the Mach-21 Competition. Later in 2022 the team competed in the prestigious AAS CanSat competition against over 100 international teams.

Lunar Cubesat

We developed a lunar CubeSat concept, and made a TableSat to test it.

Liquid Rocket

This project attempted to build a liquid rocket capable of crossing the Karman Line. It can be seen as the start of our SULRE project which runs to this toady, as of 2026.

Satellite Design Competition

Payload development of a satellite investigating points of interest in the lunar environment. The first stage of the competition focused on systems engineering and design, with teams assessed on preliminary and critical design reports. Those teams that passed this moved onto the second stage. This meant prototyping and testing their satellite by suspending it from the ceiling and spinning it in a room filled with simulated points of interest.

International Collaboration Project

Endorsing 'Engineers Without Borders', this project expanded SUSF into Southampton's Malaysia campus.

In-Orbit Service and Manufacturing

This project focused on developing hardware to engage with the developing space economy.

Hybrid Rocket

This project attempted to build a 400N hybrid rocket to compete in the Spaceport America Cup 2022. It successfully began testing a 40N prototype.

Entry,Descent and landing

This project aimed to create a capsule which could be dropped from high altitude balloons before being recovered using a parachute. Fairings would protect it during its transonic regime.